For starters, deal with that second letter of his final identify — the V — as if it’s a W.
QUAW-pul.
There you go, you bought it.
In all seriousness, in the event you comply with NASCAR, you actually ought to study to pronounce it accurately, as a result of chances are you’ll get an entire lot of alternatives within the coming years.
Carson Kvapil is three races into his rookie season as a full-time Xfinity Collection driver with JR Motorsports, which is owned by a reputation with which you’re extraordinarily acquainted: Earnhardt, as in Dale Jr. and his sister Kelly Earnhardt Miller (and her husband L.W.).
Kvapil, 21, ran 9 races for the crew final yr, with three top-five finishes, and opened this season with a fourth (Daytona) and twenty third (Atlanta) earlier than battling for the win final weekend within the closing laps at COTA in Austin, the place a blown right-front tire ended the chase and gave him one other end of twenty third.
Kvapil is a second-generation racer who was fairly actually born into the game — he’s a local of Mooresville, N.C., the world simply north of Charlotte that’s residence to just about all NASCAR groups. Dad Travis is a former NASCAR Truck Collection champ (2003) who ran full-time within the Cup Collection from 2005-14.
Carson’s greatest break, to date, got here in 2022 when JR Motorsports employed him to drive within the CARS Late Mannequin Inventory Tour, changing Josh Berry, who’d been promoted to the crew’s Xfinity Collection crew. Late final yr, he was tabbed to hitch JR Motorsports’ five-car Xfinity crew full time in 2025.
Carson’s 18-year-old brother, Caden, is following his older brother’s tire tracks — he’s now operating within the CARS collection for JR Motorsports.
In Austin final week, it was one other JRM Xfinity rookie, teammate Connor Zilisch, who handed Kvapil, held him off after which cruised to victory. It’s assumed it gained’t be the final time these two determine issues amongst themselves within the closing laps.
A Q&A with NASCAR Xfinity Collection rookie Carson Kvapil
Information-Journal: Your bio says you principally got here up within the conventional method for a contemporary stock-car racer, proper?
Kvapil: “Began racing once I was 10, which is definitely fairly late, operating Bandolero vehicles. Ran some Legends Vehicles. Did the weekly factor for just a few years, from age 11 to 18 or so, all the way in which from youngsters courses to grownup collection.”
N-J: How outdated had been you whenever you began racing in opposition to grownups?
Kvapil: “I used to be most likely 13. I began getting severe in 2020, operating full time within the CARS Collection. And in 2021, I obtained the eye of Dale Jr., Kelly and L.W. Miller. About then, Josh Berry was transferring as much as the Xfinity Collection they usually wanted a full-time man to return to the store. Proper place, proper time.”
N-J: Actually go to the store?
Kvapil: “Yeah, I obtained the chance to work over there in the course of the week and race on the weekends. I labored on the race vehicles, getting them prepped.”
N-J: So that you’re good with a wrench?
Kvapil: “I used to be at all times engaged on my dad’s stuff with him. The one method we may race was if we obtained the automobile prepared.”
N-J: And that’s truly the case at Junior’s Late Mannequin store?
Kvapil: “Yeah. Within the Late Mannequin program, there are two or three guys working full time. It’s not just like the Xfinity program, the place you will have 100 staff within the store. The principle driver has to return work on the race automobile. That comes together with it.”
N-J: Do you continue to get to tinker on issues?
Kvapil: “I don’t actually work on these (Xfinity) issues. I might, however all these guys have their jobs and I don’t wish to get in the course of it.”
N-J: The place’s your toolbox nowadays?
Kvapil: “It’s in my dad’s store proper now. I nonetheless like going over to the Late Mannequin store the place my little brother now runs.”
Ready for residence costs to return down
N-J: You continue to dwelling at residence with the household?
Kvapil: “I’m for now. Home costs are too excessive.”
N-J: You’re nonetheless so younger. Do you continue to have any racing posters in your bed room wall at residence?
Kvapil: “No, I by no means actually had an entire bunch of that. However I did accumulate hub caps from totally different vehicles once I was a child. I had them up on my wall, however I lastly took them down.”
N-J: What’s your dad doing nowadays?
Kvapil: “He nonetheless works at his store, engaged on my brother’s race vehicles. At any time when he will get an opportunity, he involves the racetrack and hangs out. Helps me out at instances. Provides me some recommendation on what I must do.”
N-J: Do you will have a dream automobile you intend to purchase as you start to make actual cash?
Kvapil: “I’d say a Corvette. I do have a Chevy Silverado on the way in which. It’s not right here but. I don’t prefer to splurge. At the very least proper now. But when it will get to that time, a Corvette will most likely be my choice.”
N-J: You turned 21 final yr. Did you do something we have to learn about?
Kvapil: “No, I didn’t. I’m not a drinker. I don’t social gathering. I’m truly form of a boring man, not a loopy man. I like racing. That’s what I love to do.”
Tracks on his to-do listing, and a short-term objective
N-J: Any observe you’re wanting ahead to tackling this yr?
Kvapil: “I’m actually wanting ahead to Pocono (in June) as a result of that place appears so totally different than something I’ve ever raced. On the road-course facet, I’m wanting ahead to Sonoma (July). I at all times performed the NASCAR video video games rising up, and that was one in every of my favourite locations to race on that sport. Hopefully, a few of that stuff transfers over once we go there this yr.”
N-J: Are you the form of man who units objectives for the season?
Kvapil: “I do. I actually wish to win a race. I don’t wish to say it’s gonna be simple to do. This collection is so tough. However on the similar time, going off the races we ran final yr, I felt like we should always’ve gained a minimum of one race. However we simply couldn’t give you it. This yr needs to be our yr.”
N-J: How concerning the long-term objective of racing within the Cup Collection? Do you will have a private timeline?
Kvapil: “Issues can go the way in which you need them to, however more often than not they don’t. I hate setting objectives or expectations on that for myself. It’s one thing that I really feel isn’t very predictable.”
